seriousness. They have to figure it out. And this all is
hitting at a time when the owners are meeting today and
they're trying to figure out protocol changes with
the Union. It's all the product of negotiation. They ultimately
want to ensure that they're going to play the games, and
you also want to have integrity of your product. You don't want
to have these guys just dropping like flies even though
they're they're fine and they're healthy.
Most of them who get it. They just can't play, they aren't
available. And so you have a guy who can't play. A game and
it can affect the outcome of the game. They don't want that.
So,
yes, you want to play all the games but you don't want to
play the games with guys. You literally pull off the street,
the day of the game to replace the players that people are
actually tuning in to watch. I know we automatically are just
rooting
for the laundry,
but we don't want it to be like the 1987 strike for placement
games either when all the star players for every team aren't
available. So they've got to get this under control. I think
it's a no-brainer to go back to last year's protocols because
last year's protocols worked.
They were You throw last year's protocols on top of the fact
that 90% percent of the guys are vaccinated. That should be
enough to hold this together miles.
You'd like to think so, especially because you just not
seen these kinds of numbers that are coming out of teams
almost ever. I mean, even when we go back to last season, and
there were these kinds of clusters and sort of outbreaks,
that would happen between
teams or on teams.
It just never seemed to be this dramatic, especially where you
have so many Kind of star players on three different
teams. At the same time, all going out. It was just never
really like this. And you
know, you go back to Halloween where people will probably
Gathering and get didn't see numbers like this. And then
even in the immediate aftermath of Thanksgiving, you didn't see
numbers like this. So yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense
for what now is called the Intensive. Protocols. You
probably want to implement that with
every single team and start backing things off and go to
Virtual and try to get guys boosters as soon as Possible.
So that you can have as much protection
as humanly possible against this virus, that is still out
there and is still spreading throughout the communities. Not
just, you know, on football teams, but in society as
a whole it's still not just a football problem. It's
a societal problem. But as it relates to the
football, yeah, you want to get as many guys
as healthy and as protected it against this thing as you
possibly can.
A natural solution to a supernatural problem as Arthur
Blank would say, hey-oh.
And let's move forward. The NFL players Association has played
the. I Told You So card with the NFL today because the union
was saying. Back in September test vaccinated players, daily
text
vaccinated players daily because look and here's the problem.
The NFL came up with
a set of protocols aimed at enticing as many players as
possible to choose to be vaccinated. Hey, come here,
step right up. If you get vaccinated, you only get tested
once every two weeks.
If you're not vaccinated you get tested every single day.
You decide talk among yourselves. Come to
a conclusion as to what you'd like to do. Well, then what
happened was they go from once every two weeks to once a week.
That was at the urging of the Union to do it every single
day. And now the union saying, hey, if we had done this every
single day,
we wouldn't be in this mess because
there is a logical flaw
in the entire process of
testing guys once a week because what happens is as
we've seen this week. Oh do Beckham jr. Plays in a game on
Monday night, he test positive the next day surely. He was
positive during the game. TJ, W. Couple of weeks ago test
positive on Monday.
He's - by Friday,
surely. He was positive
the day before he tested positive which was
six days since the last time he was tested. So you can catch
it. You can get it, you can spread it and nobody knows you
have it until a week after your last
test. They need to go to an airlock procedure.
And I thought from the get-go, when this first became a thing.
What occurred to me is this a simple.
You create a little booth that is attached to the front door
to the facility. You go in there you get tested and you
don't pass into the main doors unless you have tested
negative. Now. The problem is MI the testing technology
didn't allow that
starting into the 2020 season. They got there with the Mesa
Machine by the end of the season. The Mesa Machine where
they do it on. Site PCR testing. It is as reliable as
when they had to send everything away to a lab
so you can Do it in 15 minutes to a half-hour. You bring
the guy in there. Have your phone on their phones? Anyway, listen
to music, check out, read something, do whatever, check
out pro football talk.com for all. I care and I do
but you don't get in
until you generate a negative test. It's that simple.
Regardless of when I even vaccinated. Nobody gets in
without a negative test,
that will go a long way
toward preventing the spread of the virus in facilities.
Absolutely. Mike and you know, I think you're right. You're
you're onto something with that but it also Really takes
a while. And then you know part of the impetus for saying, all
right, we don't necessarily want to have to test
people every single day is because a lot of players and
a lot of Team personnel and what have you would have to get into
that facility? Very early in order to make sure that their
test could be sent off to wherever it was that the PCR
testing would then happen and then it would the results would
come back. Basically the next day or night in certain cases
if not later that afternoon. Noon. And then that's when you
find out that your negative or positive. And so
part of it is just that, you know, you don't necessarily
want to always, always, always be at the facility. But it, we
are also testing that many players. It's also a matter of
space and time and it's like, okay,
how many players can you test at a time?
Where you're getting guys in the facility efficiently? And so,
that's, I think I'm not disagreeing with you, but
I think that's part of why it is set up the way. It's set up
currently, right? We're it's only once a week.
And guys can still do what they need to do, especially if
they're vaccinated. But I think it's interesting when you talk
about, you know, the gottschee aspect of this from the nflpa.
Because like, I'm saying, it's not like we saw these huge,
huge numbers
coming out of times when folks, were ostensibly Gathering and
maybe having more parties. Like I said, was Halloween, for
instance, when we were talking about Thanksgiving initially,
you didn't see this coming out of it in that, let that next
Monday or Tuesday, where
teams actually, we're testing it.
Little bit more frequently than because of the Gathering aspect
of Thanksgiving. And so now we're in basically the middle
of December and it's like, okay things are sort of trending
upwards in different communities.
And I think that's part of why
you're now seeing all these numbers increase
within teams themselves. So, I mean, I think you're right. You
know, there is this flaw in the testing system where guys, like
Odell Beckham jr. TJ W were out there ostensibly positive
with this virus as they were.
But then you don't figure it out until the next day. So
there it is. And don't call me Shirley.
There was a tweet the other day from. I don't know what movie
that from either. There's a, there's a, of course I do.
There is a tweet the other day from Adam schefter suggesting
that the league believes 86% of the current cases of the result
of infection happening away from the facility. And at first
blush, I really don't know how they
get that down to the molecule, but maybe they do and of
course, they have an incentive to make it look. Like it's not
happening at team. Facilities,
but if that's the case, number one,
they need to start working on these guys to maybe not go out
and about and get themselves. In fact that a number to all
the more reason to come up with some sort of an airlock system.
It doesn't have to be a tiny little booth. It can be
a trailer. It can be big enough where
you can separate, you can have five guys come at a time. 10
guys, coming to town whatever it is. They have the resources
to figure out the best way to do this video, but a procedure,
a procedure, and in the, in the
teams that are playing in
nice climate. Just stay outside. You hang around
outside until it's time to get in. So they just need to
consider doing something like that because that's the best
way to keep the virus out of the facility. You don't
let anyone in every given day
who is pause no one gets in without generating negative
test. Another
thing that we've been
talking about and
somewhat surprised and dismayed that the NFL actually seems to
be listening. The idea that players who are positive and
asymptomatic and obviously vaccinated should not
arbitrarily be kept out for any period of time. They should be
allowed to play because
they are playing before they test positive. They're playing
the day before they generate the positive test and see that
whole aspect of the protocol I think was generated for PR and
or political reasons. Well, we better test them once we can
better look like we care.
When are we going to test them?
We going to test in the day of the game? No, because then we
have some guys who won't play. Let's test some right after
the game. So maybe they can come back for the next game and they
don't miss any game. So there's a lot of that logic floating
Around here. And if you really aren't concerned and I don't
think you should be concerned about guys who are asymptomatic
and positive,
spreading it in an open-air Stadium or in a dome that has
great ventilation. Why are you requiring them to be gone for
a certain period of time?
It's not practical in my view and according to Mark, Masky
The Washington Post. The league has discussed allowing
vaccinated players who test positive, but don't have
symptoms to return
sooner than they already do. My position has been unless your
Mattock, you should be allowed in
even if you're positive and if you're vaccinated
because not not in the facility per se free reign but on
the practice field and it games
it shouldn't be an issue.
Alright, and like you said it is the testing for, all right,
because if you have already been playing then you know,
your ostensibly not necessarily shedding
virus in a way that's going to get other players infected.
I think that even last year before the vaccines, we sort of
saw that there was no real. Big evidence that players were
transmitting,
the virus to one another when they were playing. So I mean
the only kind of
I guess questions then would be okay. How do you necessarily
get those players ready to play? How do you make sure that
they're separated in an in enough fashion that they
wouldn't necessarily be transmitting virus inside
because I don't think you would want to have those players in
a locker room setting that is indoors
and, you know, in close proximity to Other players. So
you got to figure that out. And I think you know, you're
talking about how the NFL has enough resources to figure out
the testing problem at the facility. Will they could
certainly figure something out in terms of like a mobile
locker room or
putting them in a trailer or doing whatever they have to do
to make sure that players can be at the stadium and not try
to infect other people in an indoor setting. So, I think
that there is something to that especially because we know
players are already playing and they're probably already
positive. So man, Mike, you know, your You're just
influencing the culture here, man.
I mean my gosh, it's kind of interesting.
Well, it just shows you that number one. They're either not
as smart as they need to be or number two. They are so
desperate for solutions that they would dare to Listen
to Someone Like Me. By the way. There's a press conference
going on. David Sills, Alan Sills. Not David Sills. That's
a David Sills. Is somebody else altogether.
Musician. David Crosby.
Crosby Stills. I I don't know. Somebody, it's not David. It's
Alan Sills,
Alan Seals
and Croft, Alan sill. Speaking at a press conference today.
I know I know
they are they are
responding to the nflpa S position that testing should
happen every day by saying that testing doesn't prevent
the spread that seems slightly a logical to me because if you
know, somebody has it
that would tend
to put you in a position where you could prevent. The spread
of it. And when I hear something like that, well,
well well, but if you're - right in, if you don't, let
anyone in the door
unless they've tested negative,
how can you tell me that's not going to prevent or minimize
this spread of it? Because I guess there's a chance that
from the moment you show up for work, that day to the moment
you leave you become positive and you start shedding virus.
I guess that's unavoidable.
But if you have a barrier to the building,
that is Start generating a negative test. You can't tell
me that won't go a long way toward minimizing the spreader.
I guess their point is right. It's not happening in our
buildings. It's happening when these guys go home.
Exactly. That's so that's if you're, you know, because it
follows the logic of you know, when you're talking about what
that Chef your Tweet, right? If 86 or so percent of the cases
that are positive or happening from outside the building, then
that's not necessarily
going to prevent as much spread or prevent the Clusters that are
Occurring that inside the building anyway because they're
not coming from inside the building the coming from
outside the building. So it kind of it more testing is not
necessarily going to be the solution for that. But if
you're getting clusters that are coming from inside the
building itself, then, yes, obviously, we you stop one then
you're going to stop that thing from entering the building in
the first place.
Here's the benefit of testing every day. I remembered now and
it's been a long time and my memory isn't what it used to
be. I freely admit it, I think, but my
recollection is that at one point early in the pandemic,
there was an argument made that daily testing serves as
a reminder. It serves as a deterrent. It serves as a way
to ensure that guys will be more careful
and for guys who are competitive
and they know they're going to be tested every single day.
It makes them
less inclined to do things that would potentially cause them
to eventually test positive because they know first thing
in the morning, I'm getting tested. So I better think
twice, before I go to the bar tonight. I better think twice,
before I go hang out
at a teammate's house and three of us. Infect each other, which
may be going on with some of these teams. You know that
every day, you've got that up or down accountability of
whether or not you're positive or negative, and that
in, and of itself, could be helpful,
not to reduce. It's the spread away from the facility per se,
but to infuse a mindset, where, you know, you've got a report
card every morning
and you're not going to slip through the cracks for a week.
If you're vaccinated. There's a chance just slip through
the cracks and I don't have to worry about that until next
Monday, if it's immediate, if it's every day.
Maybe God will be more careful.
Yeah, but I think the other part of it too is what are
what are the regulations that are in the communities? Right?
And how do we operate within them? I mean, because when
I went to Ohio for Thanksgiving, for instance, a third, there's
no mask mandates. Like, there are in LA county where I
live. I'm used to taking a mask with me every single place that
I go and I put that thing on whenever I have to go indoors.
It's just not necessarily the case
in some place like Ohio now, I mean, We can
say whatever we want about that because you've got two teams
that are in these two places that I just visited that now
have upwards of 16 plus people on their covid list, but
I think that I still think that that's part of it. What are
your in your communities and what
the regulations are with the laws are what the mandates are
in those places, especially if that's how guys are getting
this virus and testing positive. If it's coming from
outside the facility and if you're vaccinated,
I mean there is
I thought there that it's not that you're Invincible. Not
that you can't get it. Because if anybody's told you that if
you're vaccinated, you can't get the virus, that's wrong.
It's just that the effects
of what it is that you get, your symptoms are going to be
more mild and it's probably not going to sing you to the ICU.
Right? I think that hopefully everybody is taking a vaccine
knows that. So
because of that, I just feel like, even with that
knowledge, you still have this more of a sense of
invincibility, right? And you think, okay. I'm protected to
a certain extent. I've been trying to do the right things
and I've been abiding by
everything that, you know, the government tells me to do in my
locality. Then
you don't think that there's as much of a risk. So I think
all that is to say
that. Yeah, if you're still if you now are implementing
the daily testing, it sort of tells you especially if you see
what's going on in all these other teams.
Like okay. Well, maybe we got to back off a little bit because
if I test positive
it's clearly going to be a competitive disadvantage.
Advantage for my team as we are trying to make a push to
the playoffs. And I think the more team start thinking about that
the better off they're probably don't be
well because it's going to be a team that has the full
commitment that follows those procedures that he's careful
about what they do. That has strong team leadership that
holds guys accountable like a Tom Brady
that will not have
themselves in the predicament of losing key players for
postseason games.